by Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

by Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

According to The New York Post, the celeb chef's elderly aunt died the day after Thanksgiving when she was accidentally locked out of a house and left outside in the freezing cold. Apparently, the aunt was house-sitting for her sister, Ray's mother.

Ray's cousin says the star and her immediate family are to blame, and what's worse, she didn't even attend the funeral.

"My mother is dead today because (the) Ray family neglected her," Ray's cousin Gina Mesnick told The ¬≠National Enquirer. "I want the world to know the truth about them and just how they treat their own family. ... Mom was paid $300 to house-sit for her sister five days a week -- but was never given a key."

Ray's 77-year-old aunt, Geraldine Dominica Scuderi, reportedly left the house to feed some birds, then found herself unable to re-enter the home when a door locked behind her.

"Mom ‚?? who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ‚?? went out to feed the birds," Mesnick explained to the Enquirer. "Then, when she went to go back in, she must have realized that the door had locked behind her. There's security camera footage that shows my poor mom trying desperately to break a window with a rock to get back in as well as to gain access through the garage door by way of a keypad that had been previously disconnected without her knowledge."

Mesnick thinks her mother's poor health contributed to death from exposure. (The Post reports that the cause of death is listed as a heart attack.)

"At some point in the evening I suspect that, because of her condition, she had trouble breathing and collapsed in the driveway and basically died there. Her body wasn't found until the following morning."

Mesnick is also upset that Ray didn't attend her mother's funeral last week.

Ray's reps attributed the absence to work commitments and sent the following statement to USA TODAY: "Rachael and her family were shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic and untimely passing of her aunt in late November. Rachael's mom was the nearest in age to Geraldine among her nine brothers and sisters, so of course they were extremely close and spoke daily. She was deeply loved and cared for by all."